The Agitprop of Ajit Pai: The Republican FCC Commissioner Calls Out the Troops

The
entire right-wing mediasphere flexed its powerful muscles last week
against its only regulator, the Federal Communications Commission.
.
It
started when Republican FCC Commissioner, Ajit Pai, ignored
traditional inter-agency channels and went straight to the Rupert
Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal to accuse his colleagues of "meddling with the news."
.
That was all it took.
.
Pai's
beef? That the FCC would be conducting a "Multi-Market Study of
Critical Information Needs" (CIN) to question radio and TV reporters and
editors about how they determine which stories to run and which not to
run. The study would also ask ask about "perceived station bias" and
"perceived responsiveness to underserved populations."
. As I reported at The BRAD BLOG way back in 2011,
"The FCC is tasked with making sure the broadcast media --- via the
limited broadcast spectrum which is owned by we, the people -- serves
the public interest. Every four years, as required by the 1996
Telecommunications Act, the FCC must revisit the issue of public
interest in media ownership." Despite the right wing hyperventilation
over the nefariousness of the CIN study, it's simply part of the FCC's
statutory mandate, as explained here.
.
What's
most interesting, however, is that Pai enlisted the very same right
wing Pied Pipers who have long taken control of and, indeed, dominate
the very airwaves we ALL own, and which most of us agree need more
diversity and public oversight -- in hopes of intimidating the new
Democratic FCC Chair Tom Wheeler into providing less diversity and
public oversight. That bit of upside-down policy jujitsu was,
ironically enough, enabled by the tremendous power of broadcasting over
our publicly-owned airwaves.
.
Following the siren call of Pai's piping, both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck dutifully took to those airwaves coast-to-coast to work their 30 million or so radio listeners
into a frenzy to prevent the FCC from following the agency's
decades-long mandate for determining whether local broadcast news
organizations are serving the "public interest" or whether they are
merely producing news stories mandated by their corporate owners.
.
Pai's ploy appears to have worked...

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After a Republican inquiry [PDF] led by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), chair of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, Wheeler responded
that "The Commission has no intention of regulating political or other
speech of journalists or broadcasters." He then announced the FCC, in
light of the uproar, would revise its study entirely.
.
Wheeler's
agreement to back off came, no doubt, in response to the calls and
emails from the "outraged" citizenry worked into the type of lather that
only 30 million disinformed Talk Radio listeners can bring to bear. (In
the past, similarly disinformed anti-government right-wingers have
unleashed violence and death threats.)
.
But
there's a silver lining in this tale. Perhaps for the first time,
Wheeler truly understands that the right-wing of this nation is
dominating our nation's radio airwaves, and that only he, as chief
regulator, stands between the corporate cabal that commandeered public
communications and the rest of us who deserve to have similar access to
our own airwaves.
. As I have been reporting for years,
due to the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the FCC is powerless to change
media ownership laws that allow one corporation to own as many radio
stations nationwide as they can buy. Only Congress can change this
corrosive law which, by virtue of monopolizing the national
conversation, has polarized our nation.
.
But the FCC can and must
enforce rules which, even though they are at the margins, are meant to
protect the rest of us from the same kind of onslaught Wheeler has just
experienced. The FCC must learn whether news offered over our public
airwaves in a given community reflects the community's needs or only the
parent company's corporate line. It must similarly prevent radio
stations from using OUR airwaves to promote candidates of only ONE
political party.
.
My non-profit project Media Action Center's case requesting the FCC enforce comparable time rules
will hit Tom Wheeler's desk any day now. We are also asking that the
FCC deny Right Wing Radio's argument that they may exclusively support
Republican Party candidates over our public airwaves because, as they
are now claiming in hopes of skirting both the spirit and intent of the
law, Right Wing Talk Radio is "bonafide news". You can assist this
effort to return Alice back from Wonderland by signing our petition to "Tell the FCC: Talk Radio is NOT Bonafide News!"
.
I'd
love to get the word out about our case and our petition over our
public airwaves. It would be nice to work the citizenry into a lather
over the truth, for a change, rather than over pretend outrages fomented
by corporatist charlatans. But, alas, non-Rightwingers no longer have
access to the public airwaves of our nation.
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For the first time, I suspect -- or at least hope -- that Tom Wheeler finally realizes why this is so important.
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Update: Late Friday, Feb. 28, according to an FCC spokesperson, the FCC has abandoned the CIN Study.

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About Me

Sue Wilson tells important stories which move politicians to act. She is the Emmy winning director of the media reform documentary "Broadcast Blues" and editor of SueWilsonReports.com.
Broadcast Blues sets its sights on media policy, and www.SueWilsonReports.com turns a critical eye on the media itself.
She recently formed an activist site, http://www.MediaActionCenter.net